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Michael S. Mahoney
Program in History of Science
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
(Annals of the History of Computing 10(1988), 113-125)
After surveying the current state of the literature in the history of computing, this
paper discusses some of the major issues addressed by recent work in the history of
technology. It suggests aspects of the development of computing which are pertinent
to those issues and hence for which that recent work could provide models of
historical analysis. As a new scientific technology with unique features, computing
in turn can provide new perspectives on the history of technology.
Introduction
Since World War II 'information' has emerged
as a fundamental scientific and technological
concept applied to phenomena ranging from
black holes to DNA, from the organization of
cells to the processes of human thought, and
from the management of corporations to t he
allocation of global resources. In addition to
reshaping established disciplines, it has
stimulated the formation of a panoply of new
subjects and areas of inquiry concerned with
its structure and its role in nature and society
(Machlup and Mansfeld 1983). Theories based
on the concept of 'information' have so
permeated modern culture that it now is
widely taken to characterize our times. We
live in an 'information society', an 'age of
information'. Indeed, we look to models of
information processing to explain our own
patterns of thought.
The computer has played the central
ro le in that tr ansfo rmat ion, both
accommodating and encouraging ever broader
views of 'information' and of how it can be
transformed and communicated over time and
space. Since the 1950s the computer has
replaced traditional methods of accounting and
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of the History of
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The
Real
Computer
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